YEAR 2008 TO BECOME LARGE-SCALE TRANSITIONAL YEAR FOR ALL COUNTRIES OF SOUTH CAUCASIAN REGION: AMERICAN ANALYST

ArmInfo
2007-05-25 15:04:00

Year 2008 will become a large-scale transitional year for all
the countries of the South Caucasian region as parliamentary and
presidential election will be held in all the countries of the region,
as well as in Russia and the USA, the American expert of the Analytical
Center on Defense and Security Issues the "Janes Information Group"
in Washington Richard Giragosyan said at the international conference
"Caucasus-2006" in Yerevan which comes to an end today.

He said that both the European Union and the USA have one and the same
goals in the South Caucasian region, that is, geopolitics, politics,
energy and security, however, they interpret them differently and
achieve them in different ways. If EU strives for integration of the
All-European values in the region, the USA tries to "extrude" Russia
out of the region, first of all. One should also keep in mind the
interests of such big "players" as Turkey and Iran, Giragosyan said.

As for Armenia, the analyst said, it should not forget that Azerbaijan,
due to the permanently growing military budget, will become a powerful
military state in 5-10 years, while Armenia will stop "to be a military
dominant " in the region. "Until the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan is
headed by the present Defense Minister, everything will remain as is,
however, in case of his replacement, serious changes may happen in the
military structure of this country and the new president of Armenia,
first of all, will have to reckon with this", R. Giragosyan emphasized.